Nimrod Borenstein

With acclaimed performances of his music throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and Japan, Nimrod Borenstein has achieved a remarkable feat: establishing himself as one of the leading composers of his generation on the strength of a music that internationally leading instrumentalists and orchestras love to perform and that audiences love to hear. Repeat performances are the rule, not the exception for Borenstein’s compositions. His catalogue counting already more than 70 compositions is remarkable both for its wide scope – including orchestral and chamber music, concertos, vocal, solo instrumental repertoire and ballet- and its timeless quality.

At the heart of this achievement is a tireless working ethic and a strikingly simple, yet challenging philosophy: to search for perfection and create in each piece a new unique world with its own rules, a world which should feel like it has always existed and could not be otherwise; secondly and most importantly the new piece must be able to hold its own against the established masterpieces of musical history.

Nimrod Borenstein won the esteem of the great pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy early on in his career. In 2013, Ashkenazy conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra for a performance of ‘The Big Bang and Creation of the Universe’ to great acclaim. Later that year, he conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall for the world premiere of ‘If you will it, it is no dream’, marking this remarkable composer-conductor co-operation as a long-term project.

The past years have seen Nimrod’s compositions premiered and performed at prestigious venues, from the Royal Opera House and the Royal Festival Hall in London to the Salle Gaveau in Paris and Carnegie Hall in New York. Nimrod Borenstein has been composer-in-residence of several Festivals and orchestras and his music is performed in numerous music festivals across Europe, including It’s All About Piano in London, the Burgos International Music Festival in Spain, the Belgrade Cello Fest in Serbia, the Evmelia International Music Festival in Greece and the Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves in France. His pieces are often performed in international music competitions such as the International Jeunesses Musicales Competition.

Current and future seasons continue to see a great number of commissions, world premieres and repeat performances of Nimrod’s works worldwide. A particular highlight of 2015 was the world premiere at the Royal Opera House of his ballet ‘Suspended’ opus 69, written for Gandini Juggling’s ‘4 x 4: Ephemeral Architectures’ . Following the premiere the ballet was at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for 23 shows during the summer and is now touring the world.

During the past few years Nimrod Borenstein has been particularly interested in the composition of concertos. His large scale violin concerto opus 60 was premiered by Dmitry Sitkovetsky in 2014, just a year after the premiere of his cello concerto opus 56b and he just finished composing the saxophone concerto opus 70 commissioned by distinguished woodwind manufacturer Buffet Crampon for the saxophonist Michel Supéra. He is currently writing a guitar concerto for the guitarist Costanza Savarese and more concerto commissions with renowned soloists are already being planned.

Having just entered into a multi-disc recording contract with Solaire, the new label by Berlin-based producer Dirk Fischer, Borenstein’s music is set to thrill audiences both on stage and in living rooms across the world very soon.

Born in Tel Aviv into an artistic family, Nimrod grew up in Paris where he started his musical education at the age of 3. In 1984 he became a Laureat of the Cziffra Foundation and subsequently moved to London in 1986, to pursue his studies as a violinist with Itzhak Rashkovsky at the Royal College of Music. He was then awarded the highest scholarship from the Leverhulme Trust to study composition with Paul Patterson at the Royal Academy of Music. He is now an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and is listed amongst the alumni as an illustrious past student.